25 years of group which ‘turns anything into a dance floor’

She formed FuzzyLogic Youth Dance Company, a company driven to increase access to dance experiences for boys.

This year, the company now known as ZoieLogic Dance Theatre will celebrate 25 years of helping guys move for their mental health, of connecting people through dance, and of bringing communities together through dance participation and mass dance events.

(Image: ZoieLogic Dance Theatre) READ MORE: Talented teens to world premiere their own play at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The proudly Southampton-based yet nationally recognised company has spent the last quarter-century proving that dance is for everyone and that anywhere can be a dance floor.

ZoieLogic has supported over 20,000 people, many of them first-time dancers, worked in countless communities, and delivered game-changing dance and movement projects in schools, estates, businesses and public spaces.

(Image: ZoieLogic Dance Theatre) Artistic Director Zoie Golding, who was awarded an MBE in 2022 for her services to dance, said: “I started ZoieLogic to challenge who dance is for and how it’s experienced. When I began this journey, I had no idea that 25 years later it would become the career that brings me so much joy and pride. It all started with a few conversations with young men flipping off a bench at my local school.

“I knew I wanted to reach people through the power of dance, especially those who might never have thought it was for them. This journey has been incredible, made possible by everyone who’s joined us along the way.”

(Image: ZoieLogic Dance Theatre) Of the company’s many milestones across the last 25 years, the We Are Holyrood programme is a standout. The flagship ZoieLogic project brings together the community of an inner-city council estate in Southampton, made up of over 2,500 residents who speak more than 25 different languages between them, to dance, in many ways.

Another milestone programme is ZoieLogic’s The Big Movement – a three-year dance-based initiative targeting men’s mental health.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary, a Jane Austen-themed mass community dance event – the Austentatious Ball – will take place on August 9.

(Image: ZoieLogic Dance Theatre)